New York Film Festival announces Main Slate

The Square, BPM and The Other Side Of Hope join line-up

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Noah Baumbach, Emma Thompson and Adam Sandler in Cannes with The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected)
Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Noah Baumbach, Emma Thompson and Adam Sandler in Cannes with The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) Photo: Richard Mowe

The 25 films forming the Main Slate of the 55th New York Film Festival have been announced by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Several films that made waves at Cannes join the line-up, including Palme d'Or winner The Square, by Ruben Östlund, Robin Campillo's 120 Beats Per Minute, which took home the Critics' Prize and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which was awarded the Golden Eye.

Favourites from other festivals include Sundance critical hit Call Me By Your Name, Aki Kaurismäki’s Berlinale Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland's collaboration with her daughter Kasia Adamik Spoor – which recently won the top prize at the Fantasia Festival.

Other notable films in the line-up include Arnaud Desplechin's Cannes opener Ismael's Ghosts, Noah Baumbach's Netflix film The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) Sean Baker's follow-up to Tangerine - The Florida Project - and Dee Rees' Mudbound.

Ismael's Ghosts
Ismael's Ghosts

They join the previously announced Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying (opening night), Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck (centrepiece), and Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel (closing night).

Festival director Kent Jones said: “Every year, I’m asked about the themes in our Main Slate line-up, and every year I say the same thing: we choose the best films we see, and the common themes and preoccupations arise only after the fact. As I look at this slate of beautiful work, I could just make a series of simple observations: that these films come from all over the globe; that there is a nice balance of filmmakers known and unknown to many here in New York; that the overall balance between frankness and artistry holds me in awe; that there are two gala selections with the word ‘wonder’ in their titles; and that eight of the 25 films were directed by women.”

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will also have a Robert Mitchum centenary tribute during the run of the festival, with screenings of 24 films, including Josef von Sternberg and Nicholas Ray's Macao, Charles Laughton's The Night Of The Hunter, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and two Cape Fears, directed by J Lee Thompson (1962) and Martin Scorsese (1991).

As Hampton Fancher (co-screenwriter of Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049) said in his tribute to Sam Shepard: "I'd like to be Robert Mitchum too and Danny Day-Lewis. I like the way all those guys own themselves. Burt Lancaster. Shepard was one of those for me."

In addition to Jones, Dennis Lim, Film Society of Lincoln Center director of programming; Florence Almozini, Film Society of Lincoln Center associate director of programming; and Amy Taubin, contributing editor, Film Comment and Sight & Sound round out the selection committee.

The 55th New York Film Festival Main Slate

Opening Night

Last Flag Flying, Dir: Richard Linklater

Centerpiece

Wonderstruck, Dir: Todd Haynes

Closing Night

Wonder Wheel, Dir: Woody Allen

  • Before We Vanish, Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
  • BPM (120 Beats Per Minute)/120 battements par minute, Dir: Robin Campillo
  • Let The Sunshine In/Un beau soleil intérieur, Dir: Claire Denis
  • Call Me by Your Name, Dir: Luca Guadagnino
  • The Day After, Dir: Hong Sang-soo
  • Faces Places/Visages villages, Dir: Agnès Varda & JR
  • Félicité, Dir: Alain Gomis
  • The Florida Project, Dir: Sean Baker
  • Ismael’s Ghosts/Les fantômes d’Ismaël, Dir: Arnaud Desplechin
  • Lady Bird, Dir: Greta Gerwig
  • Lover For A Day/L’Amant d’un jour, Dir: Philippe Garrel
  • The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) , Dir: Noah Baumbach
  • Mrs. Hyde/Madame Hyde, Dir: Serge Bozon
  • Mudbound, Dir: Dee Rees
  • On the Beach at Night Alone, Dir: Hong Sang-soo
  • The Other Side Of Hope/Toivon tuolla puolen, Dir: Aki Kaurismäki
  • The Rider, Dir: Chloé Zhao
  • Spoor/Pokot, Dir: Agnieszka Holland, in cooperation with Kasia Adamik
  • The Square, Dir: Ruben Östlund
  • Thelma, Dir: Joachim Trier
  • Western, Dir: Valeska Grisebach
  • Zama, Dir: Lucrecia Martel

The 2017 New York Film Festival runs from September 28 through October 15 and tickets will go on sale on September 10.

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